Sino-Siamese Trade In Qing Dynasty

Maritime trade between Siam and China had existed since the Yuan Dynasty, but it was not until the Qing Dynast period that its potical, economic, and social implications were fully manifested. Sino-Siamese trade had two forms, tributary trade and civil trade. At the invitation of Chinese court, Siamese king dispatched at regular intervals tribute missions to China, with formal tribute for presentation to the Chinese courts and ballast cargo for sale at Canton or Peking. When Siamese tribute ships returned to port, Peking court presented beautiful silk and chinaware to Siamese king and missions.So tribute and trade formed an integral whole, and for sake of economic profit, Siamese king more and more frequently dispatched tribute missions to China. Civil trade was considered to occur between Chinese southeast and Siam, Fukienese and Cantonese as its main carriers and junks as means of transform. Siam exported to China, for the most part, local products such as sapan wood, pepper, eagle-wood, cardamom, stick-lac, sugar and ivory. China, however exported manufactured goods to Siam, consisted of silk, chinaware, tea, preserves, paper, toys etc., mostly grown or produced in the southeast provinces. And in late Kangxi period, for lack of foods in southeast provinces, Chinese court took preferential measures to encourge rice-importing and Siam was known at the time as a rice-exporting to be chose firstly.So in the period of Yongzheng and Qianlong, rice trade between China and Siam developed prosperously.